My Last Breath
by Heart of PureSilver
Summary: One-shot, Songfic, one-sided Ulquiorra x Orihime. Orihime remembers the death of a certain emerald-eyed Espada.


My Last Breath

**I do NOT own BLEACH or the song used.**

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"_I'm that far gone?"_

_She couldn't look away from him. Watching helplessly as he turned to dust right before her eyes. Those cold, green sclera and golden irises showed no form of regret or sadness; was he truly that heartless? To not even react as his demise came ever closer as the ashes continued to rise off of him?_

"_Kill me. Hurry up. I no longer have to strength to walk. If you don't, this battle will never be resolved."_

_She looked to Ichigo. All of the frustration he felt burned in his eyes. Teeth grit and body trembling, he answered._

"_No."_

"_What was that?"_

" _I refuse. I don't want to win like this!"_

_The sheer volume of his voice expressed a plethora of emotions: rage, sorrow, shock, regret. She couldn't help but continue looking at the Espada. His eyes widened at the answer before they changed back to their original emerald hue. He looked away, as if annoyed._

"_You never did as anticipated, right up to the very end."_

_She felt herself standing up. Noticing the movement, Ulquiorra looked at her._

"_Right as I was finally growing interested in you people."_

_His face remained impassive, but his eyes showed something else. An almost enlightened look reflected off the green pools. He raised his hand toward her. She wanted to take it. Take it and tell him not to go. Don't die. She didn't want him to die._

"_Do I scare you, woman?"_

_Her legs refused to move. She looked at him sadly, tears refusing to fall. Why couldn't she move? He was disappearing little by little. Soon, there would be nothing left._

"_I'm not afraid…" she told him. "I am not afraid."_

"_I see…"_

_The face he made, it was so sad. His hand started retracting. Move. Move! She reached for him, only for his hand to turn to ash. His arm disintegrated and soon his face was now dust in the wind. His whole body was vanishing._

_No…_

_No!_

"Ulquiorra!" she cried.

Orihime opened her eyes to find herself in her bed, safe in her apartment and not atop the roof of Los Noches, back in the present.

"It was just a dream…" she whispered as tears continued to fall.

A year and a half had passed since then. She knew he was gone and he would never return. The very thought made her heart clench. Why did it hurt so much? How had he managed to make her this way?

The loneliness; the piercing pain of losing someone precious to her. She had felt it before when her brother died and again when she thought Ichigo was lost to his inner Hollow.

He was her caretaker, nothing more. He felt nothing. He was unfathomably heartless; the epitome of emptiness.

The guilt was eating away at her, like a parasite. Why couldn't she have stopped it? It was her fault, all of it. She asked for Ichigo to protect her and he turned into that monstrosity. That _thing_ was let loose because of her. She caused Ichigo's suffering to increase and Ulquiorra's death.

His death.

She wailed into her pillow, letting every emotion free from her being.

She wanted it so badly. To take him in her arms and tell him that she'd be there for him. To able to feel his hand in hers. To show him what it meant to have a heart.

He would never return.

Burying her face into her covers, she cried herself to sleep as the painful memories played over and over in her mind like a broken record.

She was there when he had his last breath.

_Hold on to me, love,  
You know I can't stay long,  
All I wanted to say was "I love you and I'm not afraid",  
Can you hear me?  
Can you feel me in your arms?_

_Holding My Last Breath,  
Safe inside myself,  
Are all my thoughts of you,  
Sweet raptured light,  
It ends here tonight._

_I'll miss the winter,  
A world of fragile things,  
Look for me in the white forest,  
Hiding in a hollow tree,  
(Come find me.)  
I know you hear me,  
I can taste it in your tears._

_Holding My Last Breath,  
Safe inside myself,  
Are all my thoughts of you,  
Sweet raptured light,  
It ends here tonight._

_Closing your eyes to disappear,  
You pray your dreams will leave you here,  
But still you wake and know the truth,  
No one's there._

_Say goodnight,  
Don't be afraid,  
Calling me, calling me as you fade to black._

_(Say goodnight.)  
Holding My Last Breath,  
(Don't be afraid.)  
Safe inside myself,  
(Calling me, calling me.)  
Are all my thoughts of you,  
Sweet raptured light,  
It ends here tonight._

_Holding My Last Breath,  
Safe inside myself,  
Are all my thoughts of you,  
Sweet raptured light,  
It ends here tonight._

_Holding My Last Breath…_

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**I happen to be in an UlquiHime mood. Every song I hear on my MP3, I somehow get brought back to these two. So I did this short little one shot.**

**I absolutely adore this pairing. I love it more than RokuXion. That's saying something. It is "the pairing that never will be" because Kubo had to kill Ulqui-kun off. It could've been canon in my opinion if it was given some time and if Ulquiorra became good after the Arrancar arc like Harribel did. But no, he got killed. T^T**

**Rest in peace, Ulquiorra Cifer. You are deeply missed.**


End file.
